New retail around Waterlooville

A Warrens Bakery and a Giorgios Pizza open in Waterlooville. I tried a Warrens Cornish pasty and it was good. Apparently the company have been going for 150 years. Big question mark though regarding the Cornish pasty, Warrens can currently protect their product under EU law, but after Brexit there will be no protection for Cornish pasties and or Melton Mowbray pork pies. Any company anywhere will be able to make anything that roughly looks like a pasty and call it Cornish.
Not sure if Giorgios is a chain or an independent.




New Premier shop being kitted out at Hambledon Parade.

Some positive activity around Waterlooville?

Waterlooville is struggling to survive as a retail and business area, but it is good to see three shops openning, two in Waterlooville centre and one opposite Hambledon Parade.

The two in Waterlooville are food/cafe units. One is a bakery/cafe selling Cornish pasties, cakes and drinks, the other is still being kitted out, but it looks like it will be a Pizza cafe of some sort.

Meanwhile, at Hambledon Parade the empty shops under the new Wellington Park flats appears to be acquiring a Premier convenience store. However given there are two existing convenience stores (Mace and McColls) in Hambledon Parade itself, it looks like something has got to 'give' and someone is going to lose out.

The other issue of course is that we have plenty of cafes and food stores already!

Oh and charity shops.

I'll have pictures and other details later.

Leaning tower of bricks

Two pallets of bricks leaning precariously towards an expensive iron fence and wall.
I estimate that the centre of gravity is well over to the left and it is close to toppling, potentially damaging the wall and fence. Hope the builders have good insurance!
It's also potentially a health and safety risk, since the wall/fence could fail and injure the owners of the neighbouring home.

 Update:

 Yes it did topple over after heavy rains. In this photo the top pallet is now touching the iron fence.
The good news is that later in the day the top pallet of bricks had been lifted off and were placed on the drive along with an additional delivery of bricks.

Berewood fantasy

So I believe the properties on the Berewood housing development are officially up for sale. Time to have a look at the rose tinted vision Bloor and the architects have about the Waterlooville area!

Here is an analysis of some points made in the marketing booklet for the new housing estate, published and distributed circa 22/06/2013. The development is part of the West of Waterlooville MDA.

Berewood Marketing Booklet (text samples)	Waterlooville Reality
Page 7: Berewood's Garden City will be somewhere our residents can enjoy a high quality and more sustainable way of life...	Garden City?? Since when has a housing estate ever been a garden city? The term garden city dates back to 1898, which amusingly reveals a lot about the true inspiration for Berewood. Instead of drawing inspiration from the real local architecture, mostly dating from 1930 onwards, inspiration has instead come from a Victorian 'movement', minus the coal chugging steam engines. Noble as the idea might be, building a 'garden city' on virgin agricultural land a few yards from a suburban sprawl isn't exactly what Ebenezer Howard had in mind. Indeed Berewood will never be self sufficient and will be a strange protusion on the side of Waterlooville. A quirk of council borders, because most of it will be outside of Waterlooville and Purbook council/political boundaries.
Page 10: Robert Adam has drawn inspiration from the architectural styles found in the surrounding villages; and says; " Each of the new homes will have their own identity and character, and local materials will be used where possible".	Not sure what properties Robert Adam actually looked at in the non-existent surrounding villages, but I don't think any of them were any where near Waterlooville. Unless 'inspiration' means looking through local history books with content predating 1920. Lets have a look at the real world... Purbrook: behind the sign, some lovely bungalows. Purbrook: post 1970s flats and some 1930s houses Waterlooville: a few hundred yards from the Berewood development, some typical flats, post 1970s Waterlooville: dual carriageways and plenty of suburban traffic: Waterlooville: 1970s social housing: Cowplain: the traditional architecture of Waterlooville and Cowplain, rows and rows of suburban bungalows. Miles and miles of post WWII bungalows, flats and detached houses.
Page 13: Nestled within beautiful countryside, just 8 miles from Portsmouth, Berewood boasts eco-friendly credentials, tranquil surroundings and a very special way of life, all within easy reach of London.	Normally when expressing distances between places, one uses the 'as the crow flies' or geodesic distance. eg. the direct distance. However in this case, the Bloor marketing people appear to have used Google or a car navigation unit and worked out the distance using the A3(M) and A27 as the route. Which is roughly an 8 mile journey, as long as you don't drive down to Southsea! The true distance from Portsmouth is about 4 miles 'as the crow flies'. Tranquil surroundings?? Well  I guess the fields on which Berewood is being built were once a bit tranquil, but I would hardly call the B21590 and Maurepaus Way tranquil! Waterlooville is a suburban post war sprawl, it has been for many decades. Easy reach of London?? It's 50+ miles away! You can't get there without burning a lot of carbon. Is that supposed to encourage environmentally friendly behaviour? There is no nearby train station within walking distance. You have a 30 minute bus ride to the station in Cosham and 45+ minute bus ride to Havant station. You could take a coach to London, but do you really want to do that everyday? One assumes of course that Bloor et al are not suggesting driving to London, creating more traffic, pollution and CO2 emissions. Some 25% of UK carbon emissions are due to road traffic. One minute Berewood is a 'Garden City', next it's a suburban satelite of London. The marketing appears to be confused (or maybe post-modern). Google map
Page 13: Ideally located close to the heart of Waterloovilles vibrant town centre. Berewood promises a great choice of local restaurants, independent shops and top performing schools.	I think anyone reading 'vibrant' in association with Waterlooville will laugh out loud. Read the many blog posts on this blog to see how 'vibrant' it is. If you like Macdonalds, Subway and Costas then you'll love the local restaurants. The only local restaurant of note that I can think of is the Shalimar. A great choice of independent shops? Here is a sample (minus the numerous big corporates):
Page 13: With picturesque villages of Purbrook, Blendworth, Cowplain, Lovedean, Clanfield, Catherington, Crookhorn, Deanmead, Hambledon, Horndean and Widley...	My advice is take a look at Google maps and streetview and judge for yourself. Can you see a picturesque village? Maybe Hambledon is still a village. Maybe even Clanfield. But Cowplain and Purbrook? Maybe Bloors author lives in Australia and has no internet connection?
Page 18: For a relaxed shopping trip, Waterlooville offers an excellent range of small independent stores.	This doesn't reflect reality. Anyone who has shopped in Waterlooville since the 1960s has seen nearly all independent shops close down, just like any other town centre. Long gone are (can't remember many of the names) the Baytree Bookshop, the art shop, Transatlantic Plastics, a number of independent shoe shops and an independent hardware shop (got any fork handles?). The fact is that most shops in Waterlooville are big corporates, including: Asda, Iceland, Waitrose, Brantano, Wickes, Wilkinson, Boots, WH Smith, Subway, Costa, Macdonalds, Carphone Warehouse and many others. That is why (along with internet retailing) we don't have many independent shops.

Hambledon Parade 2007/2009

Another before and after pair of photos, this time Hambledon Parade:


Hedgerow and fields in 2007


Fence and building site in 2009

Paints and belligerent car drivers

Paints
Firstly, the test painting of a door frame has been successful. Auro gloss paint covers well and gives a nice hard gloss finish when dry, you wouldn't believe it was made from vegetable oils and other stuff. Drying time is a bit long compared to the old plastic paint most people still use. It took 2 days to dry enough for another coat, but it does dry to a 'tacky' level in a few hours, enough to not worry about it getting on clothes. I just need to do the rest now!


Cars
Secondly i witnessed an arrogant 4x4 car driver in the Waterlooville Retail Park recently who drove down the cycle/pedestrian path. He did it because he found it difficult to manoeuvre the vehicle and decided he couldn't be bothered to stick to the car routes around the car park. Basically he was taking a short cut, which he obviously thought he was entitled to.

But what was really shocking was the fact that two girls, aged about 14 were already walking along the section of path that he entered. They were forced to get out of his way. When someone shouted out to him and pointed out his error, he just stuck two fingers up at them.

There are many issues about this incident that indicate the sorry state of UK culture and Waterloovile community. The reason why incidents like this happen in the car park, is because Havant Borough Council sold public land to a commercial developer and later gave permission for the car park and retail park to be built.

In this process they also failed to provide equal and adequate routes into Waterlooville for pedestrians and cyclists. Prefering instead to appease the car owning public and large corporate businesses to dominate the built environment agenda, pushing pedestrians and cyclists to the margins. But also the incident shows that many drivers just live in a different world when they get into their vehicles and the bigger the vehicle the less concern they often have for those around them.

Wimpey and Bryant destruction

Another set of before and after photos taken of Hambledon Road.

2007:

Feb 2009: